The Nelson County Board of Supervisors is positioning the county as a MAGA haven, in a move that might not be good for its business base, which is heavy on getting left-leaning folks driving over from the Richmond area and down from the DC suburbs to go skiing in the winter months, and hitting the Nelson 151 corridor for craft brews, ciders and wine in the spring, summer and fall.
Wonder how many of those folks want to keep putting tax dollars in the coffers of a county where the elected political leaders voted last week to affirm its status as a Second Amendment sanctuary, and took an official stance against the redistricting referendum?
Because that’s who your customer base is there, Nelson County.
MAGA doesn’t ski, buys its beer at the grocery store, and doesn’t drink wine.
Data from the Virginia Department of Taxation tells us that the Nelson County economy measured at $124.4 million in calendar year 2024, the last full year for which fully audited sales-tax numbers are available.
Accommodations, food and drinking places and beverage manufacturing accounted for $53.7 million of that economic activity – 43.2 percent.
That’s a lot of your economy there, Nelson leaders, and I get it – you don’t want the out-of-towners to dictate to you what your values are.
But it’s not just the out-of-towners who would be raising issue with Nelson County going full-MAGA: voters in Nelson County gave Abigail Spanberger a majority in the governor’s race last year.
Fun fact, that one.
County leaders have apparently deluded themselves into thinking that they represent neighboring Augusta County, which went 72 percent for the MAGA gubernatorial nominee, Winsome Earle-Sears, in November.
“It’s in this board’s interest to look out for our constituents,” said Jesse Rutherford, who represents the county’s East District on the five-member BOS.
“Localities like us are being stripped of rural representation. We should take a stand on that and say it’s wrong,” Rutherford said.
That’s straight from the MAGA Republican astroturf political consultant talking points on the redistricting effort being advanced by Democrats, and it doesn’t stand up to the least bit of scrutiny.
To wit: it’s obvious that the 2026 midterms are going to give Democrats a majority in Congress going into next year; which means, having Nelson County in a congressional district represented by a Democrat would give the county a bigger voice in DC, because the county’s representative in the U.S. House would be a part of the majority, not a back-bench member of the MAGA minority.
Try telling that to the likes of this Jesse Rutherford character, who believes that for his constituents, “this is a big deal.”
“This is going to take one more voice from the rural Virginian, specifically Nelsonian, off the table,” Rutherford said at last week’s BOS meeting.
No, but what you are doing here, Mr. Rutherford, is you’re signaling both to county residents and to the people from out of town who put money in locals’ pockets and pay close to half of your local school and public safety bills that you’re under the influence of MAGA, which is fine with me.
Because I don’t need to do the Nelson 151 thing this year, even though I enjoy a nice warm spring or summer day sitting outside one of the venues, taking in the scenic views with a cider and a fresh pretzel.
There are other ways to spend those days, and keep in mind, I live literally next door.
Not an hour and a half away in Richmond, not two and a half hours away in Northern Virginia.
What would happen if, say, somebody influential were to publicize how Nelson County has decided that it’s now a MAGA sanctuary, and doesn’t care about the libs driving across the state to leave their money at Wintergreen or Bold Rock – and in fact, not only do the locals not care about the libs, they’re openly mocking you?
I’m talking now to the libs who clicked the article here.
Don’t spend your money with these yahoos anymore.
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Chris Graham
